Articles for Saadhana

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.

All of you know that I have been speaking on Srimad Bhagavatam. Muktisudhakaram is the Asianet Malayalam series I started two years back, six days in a week. And Disha Channel in English, I think I started in the month of May or so last year. That is five days in a week. I am actually speaking on the same subject except that we don’t have always matter ready for telecast by Disha so some of the English lectures which I am giving in different places are given in between. I should say it is extremely difficult if not impossible to run both the telecast parallelly together with so many programmes for which we have to be away from the Ashram. So there is a lot of involvement in Srimad Bhagavatam.

Srimad Bhagavatam is the latest scriptural composition we have in our land. According to language experts who also have a historical bend of mind, this Srimad Bhagavatam as we have it before us was written 1400 back and that too during the period when Alvars of Tamil Nadu were flourishing with their spiritual culture and austerity. Most probably it has been written by some of the Alvar experts, that is what people say. But the content and message of Srimad Bhagavatam was there right from the prehistoric times. I would like to put it as right from the Vedic times. Because the scripture is very late in its origin, you will find all the elements which are there in the previous scriptures and whatever thought processes were current in the sphere of religion, devotion, philosophy, spirituality and yoga, find a beautiful place in Srimad Bhagavatam. It is a poetic composition and as a poetic composition, it is par Mahakavya, par excellent.

Any Mahakavya must have some elements to constitute it. It must be able to describe nature, describe different rivers, mountains, trees, plants, climate, weather. It must be able to refer to the geographical earth and the surrounding planets. It must also deal with as a philosophical composition, the genesis of creation, the power that sustains it and what is the process in which the whole thing is dissolved. So it must have its own evolution in the way of time. So the puranas have developed a kind of a time imagination measure which is not linear at all as historians, scientists and the others do.

Our time is of a cyclic nature. We always believe and understand that everything moves in a cycle. And cycle means repetition. So we are in a certain cycle. If you go in the mantras you will find

षष्टि संवत्सराणां मध्ये

This is a part of the sankalpa that is generally done in the upakrama every year. That means we have a cycle of sixty years and every year has its own name. Sixty different names are there. After the names are over, it will go on in a cycle. Now how do we know that the present year is named in this manner? Because of tradition. The earlier people will say ‘This is the year in the sixty years.’ The still earlier generation would say ‘This is the year’. So, so many times these years have repeated, we don’t know how many times. In Srimad Bhagavatam we are finding altogether a few occasions, very special occasions.

I always say, Vedvyasa presents three children in Srimad Bhagavata. The first child is Sameeka Maharishi’s son who was immensely hurt, tormented when he heard that Parikshit, the great Maharaja had placed a dead cobra on the neck of his father when he was closing his eyes and meditating. That happened to be the time Parikshit went to the hermitage wanting to drink some water because he had become very thirsty after hunting. But when he went here, Sameeka Maharishi was completely absorbed in his own within. The thirst overtook the Maharaja and he felt very bad. ‘It is we people who give them a pleasant and peaceful atmosphere to do their tapasya. When I came here, nobody attended on me and I go thirsty back.’

Nature contrived in her own manner, a dead cobra just outside. He lifted it with the tip of his bow and placed it on his (Sameeka Maharishi’s) neck. “Let me see whether this sannyasi, this ascetic, is he really absorbed in himself or it is a fake meditation.” and he went away. The news reached the son. The son got angry, instantly he went down, took some water in his palm, chanted the mantra and said, “Only a Kshatriya would have done this. They feel that their hands are very powerful. I will show them whether their hands are powerful or the ascetic mind is greater. Let the person die bitten by a living cobra on the seventh day.” After that, he came back to the hermitage. Meanwhile Sameeka Maharishi had got up. He found something hanging on his neck. He removed it gently. Then the son came there rushing, panting and crying. He said, “What has gone wrong?”

“Now this is what I have done. I have cursed him. He said you have done something very, very wrong.”

“For a small crime that somebody had done, why did you give such a huge punishment? You should know that you are the son of an ascetic. We are always supposed to be moderate, equal-minded. Many people may hurt us, harm us, hinder us, disturb us, blame us, but we must have our own poise. Why?”

“We are all the Atma, the soul which is above the range of the three gunas, above the range of all activities and reactions taking place in the sphere of matter and energy. So you did something wrong. Parikshit is a great king. Why did you do this injustice to him?”

See, this is how Srimad Bhagavata tells you right from the beginning through the boy and through his father that this is what we have to teach the children.

Then we go to Dhruva, the five-year-old boy who was disowned by the father and the mother tells him, “Yes, in this palace you cannot get justice and honour from your father. I don’t get it. Your father feels very shy to refer to me as his queen. So my dear boy, the only way will be, go to the forest Madhuvanam. Sit in austerity to please the Supreme Lord Mahavishnu. He will not desert anybody.”

He actually went crying to the mother. The mother did not pat on his back and then say, “No, no, it doesn’t matter.” She said “What your step mother has said is right. You are born of me, not of her. So you go to Madhuvanam.” Just imagine whether you devotees, mothers and fathers are able to say like this. This is the difference between Suniti and all of you. Upto that it is okay; everyone is a mother but when it comes to a question of relying solely upon God and sending the little boy to the huge forest alone to do austerity of a very severe nature to propitiate Lord Mahavishnu, I think no mother will be ready. So Srimad Bhagavata tells you, you have to test your own devotion in the hands of your son when there is a need.

The boy went straight, started severe austerity and within the six months, the austerity went on increasing and Mahavishnu appeared before him. He was closing his eyes and he was seeing the beautiful form of Mahavishnu in his heart and suddenly disappeared. Then it was like a shock. He opened his eyes and found Mahavishnu right in front. Poor boy did not know what to do. Whenever you see somebody great and glorious, automatically you feel like praising him and falling at his feet. This boy was too young to say anything to the Supreme Lord. Mahavishnu understood the predicament and he instantly took his conch and stroked on his cheeks. Dhruva became very eloquent. And the first praise that came out of his mouth, Srimad Bhagavata records is that “You are Supreme Purusha my dear Lord who entering into my body activates my dormant speech, all the other senses, the life forces, the mind and the other things by virtue of your presence, endowed with all multiple powers that we can imagine, I prostate before you. This one verse gives you the message of sanatana dharma.

This little boy says that you are not God at a distance, you are not the invisible Lord, but you are the experiential presence within everyone’s body which is responsible for all the multiple functions of the senses, the mind, the intelligence, the ego and the rest. The entire distance to God is cut by this little boy.

Now we have the third boy called Prahlada. Sameeka Maharishi was a good father to the erring son. And Dhruva was a son deserted by the father but he at least had the mother to support him and direct him. In the case of Prahlada, the situation was absolutely treacherous. He had a father who could not tolerate him. Prahlada was a devotee of Lord Hari and his father was an enemy of the same Lord. You can imagine the confrontation and conflict. Things precipitated in such a manner that Hiranyakashipu attempted all methods to kill the son, by giving poison, by getting him bitten by snakes, dropping him from the mountain, throwing him into water, fire, arranging for people to pierce his abdomen, thrust daggers into the abdomen. All the efforts failed, Srimad Bhagavatam says,

Because he was embraced by the invisible Lord. Hiranyakashipu got afraid “Now my son will not excuse me.” He himself started questioning him. “How dare you, my son, disobey me? What is the strength for you?”

Prahalada with folded hands said, “My dear father, there is only one source of strength for everybody, Indra, Chandra, the Dikpalas, including you.”

“What is that power?”

“The Supreme Lord Hari!”

“Where is he?”

The little boy, seven-year-old boy says “He is everywhere”. This is something that a seventy-year-old man or a devotee will not be able to say when confronted in this manner. “He is everywhere”.

“Can you see him in the pillar?”

“Yes”, he said.

The whole transaction till now was between the son and the father. Now it became different. Here is a boy who says that the Supreme Lord is present everywhere and, in the pillar also. Now it was for the supreme power to prove or disprove his statement and also makes himself manifest or prove he is not present. Hiranyakashipu drew his sword from the scabbard and he approached to cut off the head of Prahlada. But instead of that, he started walking towards the pillar and hit it. Then Narasimha manifested. There was a terrible duel between the father and his Lord in the presence of the little son. My dear souls, do you have the power of imagination?

A devotee child having to witness a blood-full combat between his father and his Lord Hari. Until at last Lord Hari gave all the opportunity to the father to have the joy of fighting. At the end, he had only the claws and teeth in his body, Hiranyakashipu has sword, spear, bow, arrow and what not! Narasimha subdued him, split open his stomach, abdomen, took away the blood-red intestines, blood-full and put it on his own neck, sat on the throne and started heaving. Such a fierce form, nobody had seen. How to console him? Even Goddess Lakshmi was powerless to do it. Then the boy was sent. He went praising the Lord, prostrated before Him. And Prahlada’s praise of Narahari, running into forty three verses are very, very important. It contains a lot of philosophy, metaphysics, spirituality, yoga, devotion, scriptures, a lot of religion also. And the Lord was pleased.

Now these are the three children which Srimad Bhagavata presents before us. And you will find a great lot of message in all the three. While I am narrating this, I am not telling you an episode of the past but I am telling you the history, the constitution, the behavior and the majesty of the human mind. Where are the troubles, where are the defects and where are the excellences, both are presented. This is how you have to apply the message to your own mind to find out where is the improvement necessary.

Harih Om Tat Sat. Jai Guru. Jai Guru.